For over 60 years, audio transformers have been the foundation of Rupert Neve's audio circuit design philosophy, and Rupert Neve Designs' custom transformers are an essential element of every RND product. Featuring these renowned transformers, the MBT is engineered for the ideal transformation—whether to sweeten, enhance, drive, or widen your sound. Offering incredibly flavorful options, it's the ultimate tool for musical coloration. Work your tone with the shelf EQ's three-octave range, gentle slope, and minimal phase shift. The all-new two-band shelf EQ section was designed with simplicity and elegance in mind. This smooth, musical EQ interacts with the rest of the MBT for optimal results. Numerous controls offer flavorful sonic options. Go to Listen Page (External Site) Features For over 60 years, audio transformers have been the foundation of Rupert Neve's audio circuit design philosophy, and Rupert Neve Designs' custom transformers are an essential element of every RND product. Featuring these renowned transformers, the MBT is engineered for the ideal transformation—whether to sweeten, enhance, drive, or widen the sound. Offering incredibly flavorful options, it's the ultimate tool for musical coloration. Add magic to your tone with the shelf EQ's three-octave range, gentle slope, and minimal phase shift. The all-new two-band shelf EQ section was designed with simplicity and elegance in mind. This smooth, musical EQ interacts with the rest of the MBT for optimal results. Each band offers +/- 9 dB of gain control. The LF EQ corner frequency can be adjusted from 30 Hz to 240 Hz, while the HF EQ corner frequency can be adjusted from 3 kHz to 24 kHz. The "LF" band is useful for adjusting or emphasizing low frequencies to give your material precise weight and power. The "HF" band, with its wide range of corner frequencies, is useful for adjusting the high-mids and top end, adding shine and clarity to your tracks. One of the exciting uses of MBT is figuring out how each section interacts with each other. You might adjust the EQ first, or leave it alone until the other sections are set. Either way, MBT encourages experimentation at every turn. Breathing new life into Color Comp With an all-new optical compressor design, Color Comp excels at highlighting the nonlinear distortion and colorful characteristics of the optocell, bringing new life and depth to your material. Color Comp features two selectable ratios, a sweepable sidechain high-pass filter, variable threshold and release, 20 dB of Class A makeup gain, and a blend control for parallel processing. Setting the compressor's ratio at 2:1 (LO) provides subtle, smooth compression. Setting it at 5:1 (HI) provides more dramatic action. The variable sidechain high-pass filter removes low frequencies from the compressor's sidechain circuit. Sweepable from 20 Hz to 350 Hz, this control offers highly flexible tone shaping, preserving low end while taming the dynamics of other bands of the source as needed. Color Comp also features a blend control, allowing you to use the compression circuit in parallel with uncompressed material. This is particularly useful when you want to reduce the high-frequency content, dynamic range loss, and transient squash that can result from aggressive compression. The threshold is adjustable from 0 dBu to +24 dBu, and the Gain Reduction LED lights up when the signal passes the threshold. However, even small amounts of gain reduction add a pleasant, nonlinear harmonic content to the Color Comp, so we recommend trying it even when the gain reduction is not sensitive. These harmonics become more apparent as the compressor settings become more extreme. The release is adjustable from 100 ms to 1.5 s. Higher ratios and faster releases allow for a more aggressive "pump" attack. Finally, the Color Comp offers 20 dB of Class A makeup gain. This is useful not only for pre- and post-compression level matching, but also for driving the interstage transformer in the Super Silk section, further enhancing the harmonic content. Finding New Dimensions with Width The Width section is designed to widen the stereo field without sacrificing low-end focus. It was inspired by the "Width" control found in the Stereo Field Editor (SFE) section of the award-winning Master Buss Processor, but the MBT's Width section has some key differences:
- The MBT's Width control is additive only, with a wider range for more extreme settings.
- A variable high-pass
- filter (50 Hz to 800 Hz) broadens the mids and highs, creating more space while keeping the lows centered in the mix.
- The Width component has a subtle tapering of the high frequencies to prevent overly emphasized high frequencies. Super SilkIntroduced nearly 20 years ago, the Silk circuit has been a long-time favorite of Rupert Neve Designs customers. Originally available as a simple on/off switch, it has since expanded to include selectable Red/Blue modes and variable Texture control, making it known for enhancing even and odd harmonic content of any source. Super Silk brings the latest advancements to this beloved technology, with independent control for Red, Blue, Harmonics, and Zener Drive, plus the ability to adjust gain going into (and out of) the circuit. With MBT, harmonic manipulation reaches a whole new level. RED: Accentuates high-mid and high-frequency harmonics, adding sparkle and sheen. BLUE: Accentuates low and low-mid harmonics, creating more weight and depth. HARMONICS: Increases the harmonic content of the overall music and interacts with both BLUE and RED. ZENER DRIVE: Diode-based soft-clip circuit, resulting in a more aggressive tone as MBT approaches clipping. SILK IN: Enables/disables the entire Super Silk section. MBT has implemented one of the most requested features: “Silk Purple.”

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Input impedance 10 kΩ All functions disabled Noise (22 Hz to 22 kHz): -95 dBu or less THD+N (0 dBu @ 1 kHz): 0.004% or less THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): 0.002% or less Maximum input level: +25.5 dBu Crosstalk @ 1 kHz: -95 dB or less Frequency response: <5 Hz - 30 kHz +/- 0.1 dB <5 Hz - 60 kHz +/- 0.25 dB <5 Hz - 180 kHz -3 dB HPF enabled Noise (22 Hz to 22 kHz): -95 dBu or less THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): 0.002% or less Equalizer enabled Noise (22 Hz to 22 kHz): -93 dBu THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): 0.002% or less; Noise with Compressor enabled (22 Hz to 22 kHz): -92 dBu or less; THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): 0.002% or less; Noise with Width enabled (22 Hz to 22 kHz): -88 dBu or less; THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): 0.002% or less; Noise with Silk enabled (22 Hz to 22 kHz): -95 dBu or less; THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): 0.003% or less; Other: Dimensions: 48.3 x 25.7 x 8.9 cm; Weight: 5.8 kg.